What is the difficulty with reading translated works?

The tricky business of translation There are untranslatable words, differing grammatical structures, different syntactic possibilities, not to mention the cultural, historical and contextual weight behind certain words and phrases. And that’s even without taking into account slang and pop culture references!

Is Tolstoy easy to read?

But it is long, and Tolstoy’s great work is perceived as a difficult book. So here are a few tips for how to read Anna Karenina and make the work much more enjoyable and easy to get through, from a lover, teacher, lecturer, and book club host for the book.

Which translation of Anna Karenina should I read?

By far the best translation is the Penguin version translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. They are a married couple who have translated many Russian novels (their War & Peace was exquisite).

Who is the best translator of Tolstoy?

The Russian language is the real hero of Tolstoy’s masterpiece; it is his voice of truth. The English-speaking world is indebted to these two magnificent translators, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, for revealing more of its hidden riches than any who have tried to translate the book before.”

What defects do you find during translation?

Lexical-semantic problems Such problems include terminology alternatives, neologisms, semantic gaps, or lexical networks. Other problems are contextual synonyms and antonyms that affect polysemic units: synonyms and antonyms are aimed at an acceptance which depends on the context to determine which meaning is correct.

What is the biggest challenge of reading literature in translation?

One of the biggest challenges in this arena of literary translation is the balance to remain true to the original work while creating an entirely unique piece that evokes the same responses as the original piece.

Why is Anna Karenina a classic?

The characters feel incredibly real The same can be said for “Anna Karenina.” Its characters feel extremely solid and real. Tolstoy achieves this remarkable effect through a variety of sophisticated techniques that are commonly used in modern fiction but were startlingly original in the late 1800s.

What age should you read Anna Karenina?

From the dazzling ballrooms of St. Petersburg to the blazing war-torn streets of Moscow, children can now experience the famous, epic Russian stories. Suitably adapted and illustrated for children aged 7+.

Which is the best translation of crime and punishment?

Originally Answered: Which is the best translation of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment? David McDuff, among others, is well regarded among English translators.

Is the Anthony Briggs translation of War and Peace?

The two stars are not about the book but Amazon’s mislabeling of the translation. This Kindle edition is now the Anthony Briggs, not the Rosemary Edmonds translation.

How does Tolstoy describe Anna Karenina?

Anna is intelligent and literate, a reader of English novels and a writer of children’s books. She is elegant, always understated in her dress. Her many years with Karenin show her capable of playing the role of cultivated, beautiful, society wife and hostess with great poise and grace.

Which is the best Anna Karenina movie?

It is not surprising that critics and the public alike consider the most faithful adaptation to be that of 1967, directed by Russian Aleksandr Zarkhi, and the best Anna to have been played by his compatriot, the outstanding actress Tatiana Samoilova. It is a true cinematographic treasure.

Why are Tolstoy’s books so hard to translate?

Not only was the sheer prolixity of Tolstoy’s great novels a deterrent to all but the most determined of translators, but after the urbane Turgenev, whose measured prose slipped so easily into English, Tolstoy was also far more unpolished, more uncompromising and, well, altogether more Russian.

What are the best Tolstoy books to read?

Tolstoy: A Russian Life (2011) by Rosamund Bartlett is my favourite biography, while Andrew D. Kaufman’s Give War and Peace a Chance: Tolstoyan Wisdom for Troubled Times (2014) makes a great case to give the book a go. It’s good to meet you! I started Tolstoy Therapy back in 2012 to share my healing journey through anxiety and PTSD with books.

Did you know about Leo Tolstoy before 1905?

Before 1905, James could be forgiven for not immediately perceiving Tolstoy’s genius, as few people outside Russia had even heard his name before the mid-1880s. The English-speaking world was introduced to Tolstoy’s prose when the American scholar and diplomat Eugene Schuyler published a translation of The Cossacks in 1878.

Who translated Tolstoy’s the open boat into English?

The first English translation was entrusted to Louise Maude, who, like her husband Aylmer, was a devoted Tolstoyan, drawn to the writer first and foremost because of his religious and political stance. Aylmer Maude, born in 1858, was the son of an Anglican clergyman from Ipswich.